{"id":93979,"date":"2015-09-10T09:41:18","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T14:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2015\/09\/10\/science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:17:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:17:18","slug":"science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2015\/09\/10\/science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Knowledge Is Higher Among Highly Educated Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2015\/09\/10\/what-the-public-knows-and-does-not-know-about-science\/2015-09-10_science-knowledge_3_01\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14370\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-14370\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2015\/09\/2015-09-10_science-knowledge_3_01.png\" alt=\"College Graduates and Postgraduates Most Knowledgeable About These Science Topics\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the new Pew Research Center survey, more-educated Americans generally score better overall in answering science-related questions than those who have a high school degree or less. And those with a college degree or higher tend to perform better on the toughest questions.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adults with a college or postgraduate degree are more than twice as likely to get at least eight out of 12 questions right, compared with adults with a high school diploma or less (82% vs. 40%). Those with a postgraduate degree score an average of 9.5 correct answers out of 12, while those with a high school education or less get an average of 6.8 correct.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fully 57% of adults with a postgraduate degree get 10 to 12 correct answers, whereas this is true for 18% of those with a high school diploma or less.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On all 12 questions, there is at least a 13 percentage point difference in correct answers between the highest- and lowest-educated groups. The largest difference is found in a question about the loudness of a\u00a0sound. A 62% majority of those with a postgraduate degree correctly identify the amplitude (height) of the sound wave as determining its loudness, as do 52% of those with a four-year college degree. By contrast, 20% of those with a high school education or less answer this question correctly. And there is a 34-point gap between these groups in correctly interpreting a scatterplot chart from among a list of four options. Half (50%) of those with a high school diploma or less answer this question correctly, compared with 84% among those who completed a postgraduate degree.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Differences by education in science knowledge were also found in previous Pew Research surveys on this topic, <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2015\/09\/10\/comparison-of-science-knowledge-questions-across-pew-research-center-surveys\">as detailed in a later section<\/a>. These findings are also consistent with analysis of the factual science knowledge index in the National Science Board\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/statistics\/seind14\/index.cfm\/chapter-7\/c7h.htm\">Science and Engineering Indicators<\/a>. That research finds higher education levels associated with more factual knowledge of science. College graduates who took at least three college-level courses in science or mathematics have higher levels of knowledge about science than do those who took fewer science and math courses.[12. numoffset=&#8221;12&#8243; Science and Engineering Indicators 2014, See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/statistics\/seind14\/index.cfm\/chapter-7\/c7h.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chapter 7<\/a>, Figure 7-7]<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the new Pew Research Center survey, more-educated Americans generally score better overall in answering science-related questions than those who have a high school degree or less. And those with a college degree or higher tend to perform better on the toughest questions. Adults with a college or postgraduate degree are more than twice as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"d86dda3ce3ebfc00751798e85c67fd28","termId":939},{"key":"e06ca1635383fafc3a42d9f3cbae8198","termId":748}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[939,748],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[526,518],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-93979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","bylines-cary-funk","bylines-sara-kehaulani-goo","formats-report","research-teams-internet","research-teams-science"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":350,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/science\/2015\/09\/10\/science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Science Knowledge Is Higher Among Highly Educated Adults","parent_id":93979},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"What Americans know and don't know about science","description":"In the new Pew Research Center survey, more-educated Americans generally score better overall in answering science-related questions than those who have a high school degree or less. 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